Chapter 16
“ T hat day that you came to the penthouse,” Quaid said, drawing her attention. “When we wouldn’t let you explain why you were there or that you had never taken anything, you were coming to us because you had left him, weren’t you?”
“Yes. The first time I tried to leave him was the day after our lunch at your father’s house,” she said to Slade who nodded.
“I didn’t realize he was tracking me through my phone.
He forced his way into the penthouse behind me and drugged me.
I woke up in a car to him telling me all the ways he was going to hurt me. ”
One of them grunted but she wasn’t sure who it was.
“Then a few weeks later, I discovered I was pregnant. I knew I had to try leaving him again. I couldn’t stay with someone who continuously hurt me, put me down, who controlled every aspect of my life.
Maybe I couldn’t be brave enough to try again for me but I could for my baby.
I left my phone with a neighbor and took all the money I could find.
Then I came to you guys, because I thought you would help me.
” She had to pause to push back the tears.
What she needed was to feel numb. To go somewhere else where she didn’t have to feel .
The baby didn’t need this stress and neither did she. Finally, she managed to push her distress down deep. As she did she could hear Spencer.
He was breathing heavily.
In and out.
Shaky and fast.
Glancing up, she saw that Slade was still pacing.
Only Quaid was looking at her while Rock kept up his vigilant stance at the door.
“You never told us that he was abusing you,” Quaid said. There was no judgment in his voice, but she still felt it.
“I wanted to. Maggie came to visit me once and spotted a bruise on my wrist. I made up some bullshit excuse. I should have told her but I was scared he might hurt her.”
“We could’ve protected you and Maggie,” Quaid said.
“That’s why she came to us, man,” Spencer said brokenly. “And we threw her out.”
“I was actually going to tell you the day you drove me home after Sunday lunch with Edward, but then you got that phone call and were all stressed out. Plus there were things I wanted from the apartment.”
Like her backpack.
“No matter what he did to me, I just found excuses for him. It didn’t help that he would be so repentant later.
And he’d twist things with his words so that everything sounded like it was my fault.
He’d tell me how amazing he was and how unimportant I was and how lucky I was to have him.
It got to the point where I started to believe him. ”
“Fucking bastard,” Slade muttered.
“You have to know that’s not true,” Spencer said, looking aghast. “You’re the amazing one and he’s the fuckwit.”
“Classic narcissist,” Quaid said. “They believe they are amazing and they seem to take great joy out of belittling and bullying others.”
Right .
She’d guessed that Billy might be a narcissist. Among other things.
Indie attempted to shift position, trying to alleviate some of the pain in her side. A whimper escaped her, though. Spencer stood suddenly and she found herself flinching.
“Shit, sorry, sorry.” There was a frantic note in his voice as he held his hands up above her. “I just wanted to help you. I didn’t mean to scare you. I’d never harm you.”
Indie tried to keep her breathing shallow so it didn’t hurt so much.
You’re not supposed to be stressing.
Relax.
Every time she thought she might be able to relax something else happened to make her remember that easy lives were for other people.
Not her.
“Can I get you another pillow? How about another blanket? Are you cold? Hot? Hungry? Thirsty?”
Spencer had always been a caretaker. He was a pleasure Dom, something she hadn’t even realized existed until she’d started going to Club Slade.
And damn if it didn’t intrigue the heck out of her. But it wasn’t like she’d ever had a chance to experience what a pleasure Dom could do.
However, she’d never seen him look quite this upset as he attempted to figure out what she needed.
A pang of guilt filled her as she took in his unkempt state, the dark bags under his eyes.
No, no.
You don’t have to feel guilty. You did nothing wrong.
“I’m fine,” she told him. “I don’t need anything.”
Spencer flinched as though she’d hurt him. As though her saying that was a rejection.
In a way, she guessed it was .
She wasn’t trying to be cruel, but she had to keep a barrier up between herself and these guys. She had to protect herself.
To protect her baby.
If stress could hurt the baby, then she had to start eradicating it.
And she couldn’t get rid of some things that were stressing her. Like the fact she’d likely lost her job, that she couldn’t go back to that apartment again.
That Billy was still out there somewhere.
But she was doing what she could.
Spencer finally sat again, appearing even more upset.
“I’m not yours to take care of anymore, Spencer.”
“You were always mine to take care of. Until I fucked up. I should have stood up for you, Princess. I should have listened to what you had to say.”
“We all should have,” Slade said quietly. “It’s not an excuse but we’d had weeks to stew. To build on our anger which is part of the reason we reacted so . . . badly. Billy was celebrating, fucking ecstatic about his business winning that bid?—”
“His business?” she asked. “What do you mean?”
They all shared looks. “You didn’t know that Billy is now a partner in the construction firm that used our plans to undercut us?” Quaid asked her, peering down at her as though he could see all of her secrets.
“What? No, he’s a lawyer. I didn’t know he had any interest in design and construction. I thought he stole the plans for a client.”
“A client who he became partners with.” Slade shook his head. “The people he’s in partnership with . . . they’re shady. Crooked. Billy has never been afraid of working with criminals, though.”
She swallowed as she thought of the guys that she’d met in their apartment building after Sunday lunch. They’d looked like thugs in suits. Well, except for the guy in charge. He’d seemed like a wolf.
Scary and deadly.
“But that’s not for you to worry about,” Quaid told her. “Billy is dead to you now. Nothing he is involved with, nothing he does, will ever touch you. ”
“We’ll see to that,” Slade added as Spencer nodded.
Indie wished she could believe them. But she wasn’t sure she could trust them again.
She glanced at Rock to see him staring ferociously at the wall. What was he thinking? And why was he over there?
Did he still not believe her? Why couldn’t he look at her? Did he think she was a liar?
“He’s still out there, though. And he’s not going to give me up easily. I was so stupid. The apartment is in Maggie’s uncle’s name so that Billy couldn’t find me that way. I was being paid under the table. And then I went and had an ultrasound. That’s how he found me.”
“Are you saying that he somehow hacked hospital records to find your address?” Spencer said, glancing at Quaid. “That’s next level.”
Quaid frowned. “He must have had someone set up a search for her name and when it pinged at the hospital, he had them hack in. Or he bribed someone to give him her address.”
“That seems more likely,” Spencer said.
Great. So someone sold her out? That felt even worse. And it could happen again and again.
She was never going to be safe from him, was she?
Awesome. So much for no stress.
She tried to slow her racing heart.
I’m so sorry I’m failing you, Button.
Moving her hand to her stomach, she rubbed it slightly. That’s when she felt his gaze on her. Glancing over, she saw Rock staring at her hand intently.
Oh, was that why he wouldn’t come over to her? Was he . . . was he horrified by the fact that she carried Billy’s baby?
Well, it was none of his business.
Her anger stirred. They’d all turned their backs on her. Without hesitation. They got no say in her life anymore.
What was she going to do? Was the threat of Billy always going to be hanging over her head ?
Probably.
Unless you go to Escana.
That did seem like the only choice here. The problem was that she didn’t want to leave everything that she knew.
In fact, she was kind of terrified.
She’d never been out of the country. Edward and her mum used to go on holiday overseas. But they never took her. Not that she wanted to go. Because while they were away, Slade and the others would move back into the house to take care of her.
Those times were her very favorite memories.
But that meant she’d never left the country. Hell, she hadn’t gone further than three hours away from London. And she was kind of scared of flying.
It just seemed so freaking unnatural.
The air around her shifted slightly and it took her a long moment to realize why.
She was sucking her thumb. She pulled it out of her mouth, wincing as she moved too quickly and her side protested.
“Sorry,” she said, flushing with embarrassment.
“You’ve got nothing to be embarrassed about.”
To her surprise, it was Spencer who told her that. His tone was fierce and firm. She stared at him for a long moment.
“No? I’m a grown woman who sucks her thumb for comfort. Seems I should be a bit ashamed of that.”
“You should be ashamed of nothing,” Slade said. “You don’t need to worry about anything, Indie. I know you don’t believe us when we tell you that Billy will never have a fucking chance to touch a hair on your head again. But that’s okay, you don’t have to believe it for it to be the fucking truth.”
She stared at Slade for a long moment. She could tell he meant every word. But Billy had become the grim reaper over her shoulder.
It was only a matter of time before he found her again.
And finished what he’d started.
And she’d thought that the hard part was leaving him .